advice on picking a home server, media server

[m^ke]

i think this is my first ever post, but i have read many many threads over the years, just never felt the need to actually post, till today..

im after a home server, or media server...

it started by me buying the kids a new laptop each for xmas, his is a red I3 cpu "as he requested" hers is a pink acer I5 cpu "as she requested" yeh yeh i know, lol

they had a very old laptop between them, with a celeron cpu inside..

well... boxing day, i decided to have a play with it...

my tv is a 59" samsung 3D, with 2x usb on the side, i have 2x2tb wd elements drives connected to it, full of blu-ray mkv`s...

back to the laptop..

i installed samsung allshare onto the xp laptop, & as the tv has the wifi dongle pluged into it, it found the old laptop & played every mkv file through wifi/wireless on the drives, that are pluged into the laptop via usb.

then i went to the kids new laptops, & opened windows media player & it found the laptop & was able to play every mkv movie on both usb hard drives... wireless..! whoo whooooo...... kids were ecstatic & i couldnt beleive it,....

now i decided to try "pressure testing" this old laptop with my hdd`s pluged into it..

so, i played a 1080p movie on both kids new laptops, also on the living room tv, also a xvid on my gallaxy tab, & also a xvid on my iphone. & it was still playing to each device through wireless/wifi....! with no buffering ! , just a couple of seconds at the start....

im absolutly shocked!

why had i not done this years ago? it wasnt hard to do!

so now i have done this, im wanting a propper server/media server, but i think it must be able to install xp or win7, as i will install samsung allshare onto it again...

i have just read the whole HP mini server thread, as thats cheap with the cash back, but im unsure it will do what this old laptop will do?

this old laptop is a acer, spec from inside windows says : celeron (R) 550 @ 2.00GHZ 1 gig ram..


how its all setup..

i have virgin 50mb internet, i have there d-link wifi router, the laptop pluges into this via ethernet, then i presume, the tv/laptops,iphone, etc all connect to it through the d-link router to get to the movie files... who cares, it works!

the misses is loving it also, as now i dont have a 5 metre long usb cable along the living room floor, for transfering mkv`s to the tv hdd`s....

so can you guys spec me up a propper server, one that i can install ether xp or win7 please? smaller the better, but mabe a higher spec than the celeron laptop....

as i have been looking at small pc`s, like dell optiflex gx280/sx270, as there small, cheap, & slight bigger cpu than this old battered up kids laptop...


if you have mannaged to read all this, you deserve a medal, especially if you can understand it also. lol

im waiting eager for any replies... cheers guys...

just been googleing around & found these "Acer Veriton X4610" nice small compact...

 

[m^ke]

i agree, on paper its perfect... but after reading tons of pages on the HP microserver, it seems to have many many issues, like, drivers, drives, raid? "at witch i know nothing about.. speed issues, the list goes on, & unless your a pc guru, you could get around all the issues...

if it was as simple as me plugging it in, then plugging my 2x2tb drives inside "that have data on" "& iv read drives need to be blank" then installing samsung allshare, couple options etc, it would be great, but from reading a lot of that thread, its not so simple...

so i think im gonna pass on the neat little box that everyone seems to be raveing about, but also has endless list of issues...

 

[m^ke]

ooops, wrong thread.

i decided to get one in the end..

iv replaced the bios, put in 8gig of ram, slim dvd-rw.. standard hard drive with the burner, & 4x 2tb drives in the front..

ill post couple pics once im done, as im just waiting on the burner to arrive.